Newt News

First and foremost, a belated happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope that your holiday was enjoyable, and that you have something to be thankful for.

I've finally had some time to work on things other than school because of Thanksgiving. I haven't done a lot of work on Newt OS for quite some time, and though I really haven't put much time in this week either, I've managed to meet some goals that have been tantalizingly out of reach for some time.

The first of these goals is that I have discovered how to make Newt OS identify as Newt OS and not openSUSE! Thank you Mr. Ryan Alexander for your tip.

The second piece of news is that Newt OS LXDE has been updated (16.0.1) While still not finalized, it is nearly ready to replace its older brother based on openSUSE 13.2.

Third, I am oh so happy to announce that Newt OS Gnome has finally, after something like 6 attempts, been updated to openSUSE 42.1!!! Without getting into detail, I can tell you that this update was not anywhere as easy as I had hoped it would be. I had problems with software selection, configuration, and booting issues, but that has been resolved simply by waiting. I'm not sure what changed, I'm just thankful that it works. A download will be available later today, the live cd .iso is taking a long (long... long...long) time to build.

By this point you might be wondering, What is the future of the ageing releases based on 13.2? I personally am happy with where these builds are. They aren't perfect, but I would be happy using them, which tells me others would too. According to the openSUSE website, 13.2 will be supported until sometime next spring, probably late April or early May. As long as they are still receiving updates, I will have them available for download. However, all development will be focused on the upcoming releases, so the old appliances will not receive any updates outside of what openSUSE provides.

If you have any questions or comments, respond below, or email me at newtoslinux@gmail.com

The first beta release of Newt OS KDE based on openSUSE Leap 42.1 is available for download. This release is strictly experimental. Due to the transition from plasma 4 to plasma 5, I am finding that I have to re-learn how to configure KDE in the way I want to. This is probably most noticeable in that I cannot get it to use the wallpaper I want. However, testing it on other systems, I vastly prefer Plasma 5 to Plasma 4, and with 5.4, it seems to be quite stable. So yeah, please test out the new appliance, and if you have any advice/help, please contact me at newtoslinux@gmail.com.

The beta release of Newt OS LXDE based on openSUSE Leap 42.1 is available for download and testing (Link) This release is first and foremost an update to 42.1, which was a rather exciting mission, made easier with the help of Jon, creator of Alteratio. Keep reading to learn more about this release.

It should be noted that this is a Beta release. This means that, at this point, this appliance is not quite ready. There are some issues, and some inconsistencies, but it is on track to be better than the previous incarnation.

Known Issues:Like any beta software, there are some issues. Luckily, the only one that really limits usability is that, on login, you must select LXDE as the desktop environment from the menu at the bottom, otherwise you will be unable to login.

Another issue is that, in the PCManFM file browser, there is no new tab "+" button. This is a problem with the Moka icon set used, as it is there when other icons are chosen.

New Things:New things! The best part of a new release!First and most obviously, this release features a new wallpaper. Additionally, this release now uses Gnome's update manager (Thank you Jon!) which is cleaner than the update applet used in the last version. Finally, included are the usual updates to software (Firefox 42, Libreoffice 5.2, Flash player, etc)

Feedback:I would love feedback on this build, whether you test drive it, or if you have the time/bandwidth to download and run it on a live cd. Please leave comments below, on the download page, or email me at newtoslinux@gmail.com

If you have been keeping up with the latest Linux news, you may have heard that openSUSE recently made a new release a couple days ago. This release, 42.1, is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise, which is an interesting change, as openSUSE, while supported by the same company as SUSE, has always been independent-ish.

Some of the biggest changes in 42.1 are updated desktop environments (yay!) 42.1 provides Gnome 3.16 and KDE Plasma 5.4. Both of these have significant usability and appearance improvements over the versions used in 13.2 and the current releases of Newt OS.

So, how will this affect Newt OS?

Most obviously, this change means updates to major system components, including the Linux kernel, which is updated to version 4.1 LTS, as well as updated desktop environments, display managers, etc. What won't change is my desire to make a user-friendly Linux distro based on openSUSE with the aim of providing a more focused project. The included software will not change significantly. There may be changes, additions, or removals, but when the day is over, Newt OS will still be Newt OS.

With this release, I am setting myself some goals for Newt OS. First, I want to become more familiar with the openSUSE Build Service. I also want to make the three versions of Newt OS feel more similar; as it is, there are many inconsistencies with software selection, theme choices, wallpapers, etc. I want to remove these differences, so there is only a choice of preferred desktop environment, and no difference in content.

As for release dates, I really have no target other than preferably by early December. School keeps me busy during the week, and I am having some issues with migrating to 42.1 in a few cases. Those of you running Newt OS should be able to update your systems to 42.1 base like you would update a generic openSUSE install, but settings may not be kept. 13.2 is supported until late 2016 at least, so don't worry about losing support.

What do you want to see in Newt OS's future? Have you tried Linux and found something difficult that you think Newt OS could resolve? Let me know in the comments.